And here’s the scoop on
the TAW Wrap Party: There’s a bar right down the street, where my wife and I
(and maybe a few friends) plan to plant ourselves for a few hours, in the hopes
of sharing a few drinks, stories, and seasons greetings with any TAW listeners
who’d like to swing by. If you’re coming from out of town, and want to make a
truly “historic” weekend of it, I’d certainly recommend a visit to two of San
Francisco’s best museums: The Asian Art Museum, and the Legion of Honor, both
of which have permanent exhibitions with plenty of amazing ancient art. Oh, and
the statue of Ashurbanipal is located right outside the Asian Art Museum, so
don’t miss that! And then of course there are also the million other …

“Rome
was not a monarchy, but a free City, and they had made up their minds to open
their gates even to an enemy sooner than to a king. It was the universal wish that whatever put an
end to liberty in the City should put an end to the City itself.” – Livy, The
History of Rome, Book 2

“The Athenians, when ruled by tyrants, were no better in war
than their neighbors, but freed from tyrants they were far superior.This shows that when they were constrained
they let themselves be defeated, since they were working for an overlord, but
when they were freed each one was keen to do the deed for himself.” - Herodotus

Delivered from
Spartan destruction, the Athenians were forced to defend their new democracy
against the Thebans and Chalsidians.Shocked by a horrific crime, the Romans followed the guidance of Brutus,
exiled Tarquin the Proud and declared their first Republic.

“He added the
Athenian people, who had formally not been in the center of things, to his own
party, changed the names of the tribes and increased their number.He made ten tribal commanders instead of four
and distributed demes into the tribes ten at a time.Once he had got the people on his side he had
the upper hand over his rivals.” – Herodotus on Cleisthenes

Darius enlisted
Greek tyrants in his Scythian campaign, then extended Persia’s dominion to the
foot of Mount Olympus.Spartan
intervention put an end to Hippias’ oppressive rule.Inspired by Cleisthenes’ bold ideas, the
Athenians rejected both tyranny and foreign domination, and restructured their polis into the world’s first democracy.

“Black is your path, Agni, changeless, with glittering waves!When like a bull you rush eager to the trees.With teeth of flame, wind-driven, through the wood he speeds,
triumphant like a bull among the herd of cows,With bright strength roaming to the everlasting air: things fixed,
things moving quake before him as he flies.”-Rigvedas, Book 1, Hymn LVIII Darius retraced
Cyrus’s footsteps to expand Persian control of Vedic India. Hipparchus met a bloody end at the hands of a
jealous rival.Tarquin kept Rome’s
military and infrastructure sound while alienating both rich and poor. http://s407341505.onlinehome.us/Episode_32_Things_Fixed,_Things_Moving.mp3

“After I became king, I fought nineteen battles in a single
year and, by the grace of Ahura Mazda, I overthrew nine kings and I made them
captive…As to these provinces which revolted, lies made them revolt, so that
they deceived the people.Then Ahura
Mazda delivered them into my hand; and I did unto them according to my will.” –
Darius I, Behistun Inscription

A few weeks
ago, I was invited to do an IAMA (“I am _____, ask me anything”) thread on
Reddit.com.As many TAW listeners
probably know, Reddit is a major web community, with roughly 20 million
users.As an extra bonus, recent Reddit
IAMAs have been done by Mike Duncan of The History of Rome and Lars Brownworth
of 12 Byzantine Rulers and Norman Centuries (both of whom were major
inspirations for my creating The Ancient World) as well as a number of other
great history podcasters.

I’m happy to
announce that my TAW IAMA will happen this Tuesday June 25th at
6:30PM EST, and will run for a few hours.On the day of the IAMA, you should be able to access the thread by going
to: http://www.reddit.com/r/history/From what I’ve
been told, it should be easy to find from there.Please feel free to stop by, say hi, and ask
any questions you’ve been meaning to ask, about the podcast or anything
else. Thanks again
for listening! Scott C.

"So Darius son of Hystaspes was made king, and the whole of Asia, which Cyrus first and Cambyses after him had conquered, was subject to him...and everything was full of his power. First he made and set up a carved stone, upon which was cut the figure of a horseman, with this inscription: 'Darius son of Hystaspes, aided by the excellence of his horse, and of Oebares his groom, got possession of the kingdom of Persia.'" - Herodotus

Cambyses successfully conquered
Egypt, but forays beyond its frontiers met with frustration and disaster.The promise of Lydian gold lured Polycrates to
a gruesome death in Sardis.Bardiya
briefly wrestled the Persian Empire from his brother, only to lose it to a
conspiracy of nobles led by Darius.

“Remember this lesson well:Whenever you can, act as a liberator.Freedom, dignity, and wealth—these three
together constitute the great happiness of humanity.If you bequeath all three to your people,
their love for you will never die.” – Cyrus the Great (quoted by Xenophon)Servius Tullius laid the
foundation for the Roman Republic, but his dubious claim to the throne led to
his violent overthrow by Tarquin the Proud.Cyrus the Great governed his vast empire with wisdom and temperance
before meeting his end along Persia’s volatile eastern frontier.Cambyses II’s Egyptian designs were aided by
a high-level betrayal in the court of Ahmose II.

“In winter,
as you lie on a soft couch by the fire,Full of good
food, munching on nuts and drinking sweet wine, Then you
must ask questions such as these: ‘Where do
you come from?Tell me, what is your
age? How old were
you when the Mede came?’” – Xenophanes of Colophon The return of Harpagus to Anatolia
signaled the end of Ionian Greek freedom.After securing his third tyranny, Peisistratos brought stability and
prosperity to Athens.Fresh from a
series of Eastern conquests, Cyrus II used propaganda and military might to
overthrow Nabonidus and claim his third Near Eastern empire.

“But in every matter it behooves us to mark well the end:
for oftentimes God gives men a gleam of happiness, and then plunges them into
ruin." – Solon of Athens

Peisistratos’ first two attempts at tyranny were thwarted by
the Athenian eupatridae.The Spartans cultivated a reputation as the
most fearsome warriors in Greece.Prophesied
to destroy a mighty empire, King Croesus of Lydia led Anatolian forces against
the Persians and Medes, but the unconventional strategies of Cyrus brought him
to a bitter end.

“So it was that the Persians, who had once been
the slaves of the Medes, became their masters.“ – Heroditus

Nebuchadnezzar II
turned Babylon into the most magnificent city of the ancient world, but the
Chaldean line dissipated in his wake.Nabonidus’ fervent devotion to the moon god, Sin, served to spark a war
and drive the Babylonian king into self-imposed Arabian exile.The military and political skills of Cyrus,
and a high-level Median betrayal, enabled the Persians to win the empire of
Astyages.

“Ahmose became a lover of the
Hellenes; and besides other proofs of friendship which he gave to several among
them, he also granted the city of Naucratis for those of them who came to Egypt
to dwell in; and to those who did not desire to stay, but who made voyages
thither, he granted portions of land to set up altars and make sacred
enclosures for their gods. Their greatest enclosure and that one which has most
name and is most frequented is called the Hellenion, and this was established
by the following cities in common: --of the Ionians Chios, Teos, Phocaia,
Clazomenai, of the Dorians Rhodes, Cnidos, Halicarnassos, Phaselis, and of the
Aiolians Mytilene alone.“ – Heroditus

After his overthrow of Apries, the pharaoh Ahmose II increased Egyptian
prosperity by centralizing and facilitating Greek trade at Naucratis. King Alyattes used Lydia’s vast mineral wealth
to maintain a powerful army and mint the world’s first coins. Thales and the philosophers of the Milesian
school introduced …

With the current series ending over the next few months, I wanted to gauge how many (local?) listeners might be interested in attending some sort of informal wrap-party in SF. Let me know what you think:

Greetings TAW listeners!April 4, 2013 will mark the one year anniversary since this podcast was
first launched, and what an amazing year it’s been.I wanted to thank you all - not only for
your kind words, wonderful iTunes reviews, and lovely Facebook posts - but also
for helping me, and the series, reach the following, rather mind-boggling, set
of milestones:

250 Facebook “Likes” (OK,
that’s not mind-boggling, but it is fun)5,000 regular subscribers,
and (wait for it…)250,000 episode downloads!!!Episode 25 (the Silver Anniversary episode!) is coming up
next and, in yet another nod to reality, I’ll officially be changing the
subtitle of TAW from “around 20 episodes” to “around 30 episodes.”
A few thousand years in the bank, less than a century left
to go – but trust me, there are a lot of amazing developments crammed into that
last century.Thanks again for
listening, and keep spreading the word!

“I freed those here who suffered unseemly enslavement and
feared the tempers of their masters.I
did this by harnessing force and justice together with power, and I carried
through my promises.I wrote statues
alike for those of high and of low social status, fitting straight justice for
each.If someone other than I had taken
the goad, some ill-intentioned and greedy man, he would not have been able to
control the people.For had I been
willing to do what pleased the opposing party then, or what the others planned
for them, this city would have lost many men.That is why I made a stout defense all round, turning like a wolf among
many hounds.”- Solon of Athens

The leaders of Rome, Carthage and Greece relied on strength,
wisdom and cunning to navigate the turbulent political waters of the early 6th
century Mediterranean.The delicate
balance struck by Solon allowed Athens to prosper, while also unleashing the popular
forces that would define the city’s future. http://s407341505.onlinehome.us/…

“So they took the king
and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and
he pronounced judgment on him.Then the
king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. And he killed all
the princes of Judah in Riblah.He also
put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in bronze
fetters, took him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.”
– Jeremiah 52

After eliminating the last Assyrian holdouts, King
Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon warred against Egypt over control of the Levant.Repeated Judean defiance resulted in the
sacking of Jerusalem.Cyaxares of Medea
found his Anatolian designs curtailed by the powerful kingdom of Lydia.

“But when earth had covered this generation also, Zeus the
son of Cronos made yet another, the fourth, upon the fruitful earth, which was
nobler and more righteous, a god-like race of hero-men who are called demi-gods,
the race before our own, throughout the boundless earth.Grim war and dread battle destroyed a part of
them, some in the land of Cadmus at seven- gated Thebe when they fought for the
flocks of Oedipus, and some, when it had brought them in ships over the great
sea gulf to Troy for rich-haired Helen's sake: there death's end enshrouded a
part of them.But to the others father
Zeus the son of Cronos gave a living and an abode apart from men, and made them
dwell at the ends of earth. And they live untouched by sorrow in the islands of
the blessed along the shore of deep swirling Ocean, happy heroes for whom the
grain-giving earth bears honey-sweet fruit flourishing thrice a year, far from
the deathless gods…” – Hesiod, Works and
Days

I just found out that the first few episodes of TAW are no longer showing up on iTunes, which is obviously an issue for new subscribers. I'm working to address the issue, but in the meantime, if any listeners have any advice on making Blogger and iTunes play nice (via Feedburner) please let me know. Thanks! Scott C.

UPDATE:Oh Happy Day!!!All TAW episodes are once again present and accounted
for in the iTunes feed.Thanks to TAW
listener Marwan for the heads-up, to our old friend Mike Duncan for ID-ing the
problem, and to listener Amberlee for giving me the fix.You guys are awesome!Thanks again, Scott C.

In the mid-7th century BC, Nubia and Assyria
struggled for control over Egypt before the kingdom regained independence
under the pharaoh Psamtik I.King Gyges
of Lydia drove the Cimmerians from western Anatolia and sent Greek mercenaries
to reinforce the pharaoh’s armies.Ashurbanipal
spent decades warring against the Empire’s enemies, including his older brother
in Babylon, but his total destruction of the ancient kingdom of Elam sowed the
seeds of Assyria’s downfall.

“The city and its
houses, from its foundations to its walls, I destroyed, I devastated, I burned
with fire.The wall and outer wall,
temple-tower of brick and earth, temples and gods, and many as there were, I
razed and dumped into the Arahtu-Canal.Through the midst of the city I dug canals, flooded its site with water,
and the very foundations thereof I destroyed.I made its destruction more complete than by a flood.That, in days to come, the site of the city,
its temples and gods, might not be remembered, I completely blotted it out with
floods of water, and made it like a meadow.” – Sennacherib of Assyria